They Can't Take That Away From Me
by kellylover
Summary: ""I've wanted to tell you for a long, long time," he continued, already beginning to feel the weight lift off his shoulders, "but I just– Well, I've never been able to find the right words." He was about to say it, and he could feel the excitement in his veins. No matter her reply, he no longer had to deny his feelings." Set during "The Impossible Mission." Oneshot.


**They Can't Take That Away From Me**

**kellylover**

"Max, we're trapped!" 99 exclaimed and Max's mind and heart were racing. After locking the door behind him, he strode over and did the same to the door at 99's back.

"We'll have to barricade ourselves in this room," he said decisively, eyeing the chairs to his right. "Get these chairs and put them up against the wall."

"Right, Max," 99 obeyed, following his lead and stacking two of the chairs against one of the doors.

"This won't stop them, but it will slow them up a little bit," he said.

"I guess this is it, Max," 99 replied, resignation in her eyes. Max felt a wave of heat and ager flush his face.

"It's my fault, " he huffed. "I never should have allowed you to talk me into taking you on this assignment."

"Don't say that, Max!" she interjected almost immediately. "If anything is going to happen to us, I'd rather it happen like this, while we're together."

Max frowned and turned his back to her. When 99 had come to him, insisting on being his backup on this, the most dangerous assignment that had ever been given to CONTROL, Max tried to convince her that she was better off sitting this one out. But as she argued, Max was reminded of the first time he and 99 had worked together. Back then, 99 had been used to working CONTROL's odd jobs and she had been used to working them alone. She was fiery and full of youthful enthusiasm with a confidence tempered by her feminine demeanor. But after three years of her deferring to Max's seniority, he had forgotten who she was and of what she was capable. He had forgotten his own excitement at being partnered with such a skilled agent, such a natural in the filed of espionage. He had found her beautiful, certainly, but that had been secondary, as all things were. Duty came first.

So Max gave in. And now, not only was he facing almost certain death, 99 was facing potentially even worse. It hadn't been that long ago that they had sat in his apartment, talking too much about work, that they had mentioned the treatment of captured female American spies. Max thought what he faced was bad enough, without adding the possibility of a life of slavery for the ruthless men of KAOS.

"It won't be long now, Max," 99 said, breaking Max's train of thought.

Max pressed his lips together and inhaled and for a split second, between the continual thuds of bodies hitting doors that were slowly giving way, Max found that he no longer could hold himself back. "99," he called softly, his path suddenly clear, "there's something I have to tell you."

"Yes, Max?" she replied, equally soft.

"Well, we've known each other for a long time, and," he paused, struggling to form his thoughts, "well, we've been through a lot of things together."

There were more thuds and Max felt jarred. They were running out of time.

"Go on, Max," she encouraged.

"Well, it's just that I…" he trailed off as he played with the cane in his hand. "Well, I have to tell you how I really feel about you." Suddenly, the words were flowing. His secret was out. There was no going back. "I've wanted to tell you for a long, long time," he continued, already beginning to feel the weight lift off his shoulders, "but I just– Well, I've never been able to find the right words." He was about to say it, and he could feel the excitement in his veins. No matter her reply, he no longer had to deny his feelings. "You see, 99, it's not easy to say…" But when the time came, he found the words stuck in his throat. His mouth was inexplicably dry. "Well, it's…It's not easy to say…"

"To say 'I love you', Max?" 99 offered. He half-glanced over his shoulder, too afraid to look her in the eye. By her tone, Max judged that he had confessed too much.

"Yes," he answered.

"Well, why don't you let me say it for you?" she began. Confused, Max furrowed his brow. Why would she tell herself how much he cared about her? "I love you, Max," he heard before he could make out the riddle.

"No, no, 99, that's not what I wanted to say," Max said, turning to face her in earnest. "I wanted to say, 'I love you, 99,'" he explained.

"No, I'm saying I love you too, Max," she told him. His eyes opened in shock.

"You do?"

"I always have." He looked at her for a second, hardly daring to believe what he just heard. But when he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her like he recently had so often, she responded with a warmth he had never experienced before. She was delightfully open to him, painfully vulnerable to his kiss.

Though he heard nothing but the sound of his own blood pounding in his ears while he kissed 99, when they pulled apart, the haze was lifted and Max heard, once again, the thuds of blood thirsty men working their way to Max and 99's poorly made barricade.

"You know," Max began as 99 rested her head on his shoulder, "it's a shame we had to discover each other when our lives are in such terrible danger."

"It would have been so much more romantic if we could have been having a candlelit supper at your apartment and sipping champagne and then saying how much we love each other while we're dancing on your terrace."

"Oh, no, that would be more dangerous than this. I don't have a terrace," he reminded her. He felt her smile against his neck and move her arms to hold him tighter.

"Oh, Max, I'm so glad you love me," she confessed. He puffed his chest up with pride, but it shrunk a little when he heard that their pursuers had made their way through the first set of doors. They were running out of time. Soon they would be dead or worse.

"You know, 99," he said, taking a breath of courage, "if we could get out of this trap, I'd marry you."

"You would?" she asked, sounding hopeful.

"Of course I would," he assured her. There were more thuds, and Max felt surprisingly calm. He was going to die knowing that 99 loved him. He had never felt more at peace.

Until he felt her start to pull away.

"Now that you mention it, Max, there _is_ a way out!" she exclaimed. He froze.

"There is?"

"What about the old double-door deception trick? It just might work!"

His mind and heart started racing again. "Of course! The old double-door deception trick! It just might work!"

"If it does, we'll get out of here alive, and then we can be married," she said as she worked. "She looked up as she finished returning the chairs to their original place to find Max stopped, holding his first chair. "Max, don't you want to get out of here alive?" she asked incredulously.

"I'm thinking," he replied. And he had been. This case had reminded him time and again that 99 was a valuable asset to CONTROL. 99 loved her job and she was darn good at it, too. Max knew that 99 would never want to give up her career, and he couldn't be the one to ask her to give it up. But the likelihood that they could both continue to work for CONTROL knowing their policy on inner-agency marriage, let alone continue to work as partners seemed nonexistent.

"Max," she reproached him. They heard more thuds, and Max quickly spurred into action as 99 said, "Hurry, Max!"

Of course, Max knew that 99's idea was almost sure to work, and work it did. They not only stopped KAOS from getting the theory of Helmenivity out of the country, they also captured the Leader, who surprisingly turned out to be the leader, and the rest of his band. And it was then that 99 reminded Max once more that they could be married.

"Yes, uh," Max said, too afraid to speak more, "married."

"Max, you did mean what you said, didn't you?" 99 asked, and he could hear the worry in her voice. Mentally scolding himself for frightening her, Max spotted the microphone sitting on the table in front of him and took off the ring that held the mouthpiece in place. He placed it on her ring finger as she said, "Oh, Max, it's beautiful."

"There's just one thing I'd like to know, 99," Max began while she looked adoringly at the microphone ring. "Why didn't you think of a way out of here before I asked you to marry me?"

"Well," she said, "I didn't have as much to live for then." He rolled his eyes and smiled a little at her admission, and then, together, they walked out as the successful team. Outside the building were a few remaining CONTROL agents tasked with tearing it apart to find as much information on KAOS's operations as possible. Upon seeing their fellow agents, Max slid his arm out from around 99's waist. There were many shouts of hurray and pats on the back as they made their way to Max's car, and they were soon on their way to 99's apartment. The chief had agreed the paperwork could wait until tomorrow, so they sped down the street to her place.

As Max drove, 99 removed herself of the mustache still stuck on her upper lip. She took her hat off and unpinned the bun that held her hair in place. She let it fall freely down her shoulders, and she loosened the tie around her neck, unbuttoning a few of the buttons on her shirt. By the time they reached her apartment, she looked just tempting enough to take her up on her offer when she asked, "Won't you come in for a drink, Max?"

He swallowed. "Okay."

So he parked the car and followed her, like a puppy dog, up to her apartment. She unlocked the door and stepped inside. Max moved to follow, but got stuck over the threshold for moment. He was going to be alone, really alone with no one to bother them and no one trying to kill them, with his fiancé for the first time. He suddenly found it difficult to breathe.

"Come on in, Max," 99 called, as she headed for her bedroom. "I'm just going to change out of this outfit. I'll be right back."

Realizing that he still had his own false mustache and hat and all on, he stepped in and closed the door, ripping the mustache off of his face as he did so. He deposited his hat, jacket, and tie on a nearby table and sat nervously down on the couch. Before too long, 99 emerged from the bedroom, dressed simply in dark slacks and a plain pale yellow shirt.

"What are you drinking, Max?" 99 called. "Your usual?"

It took him a second to find his voice, but he eventually responded, "Uh, yeah, 99. Just a scotch on the rocks."

After a minute, 99 was walking over to him, her drink in one hand, his in the extended other. "Here you go, Max," she said, sitting down next to him on the couch. Max took his drink and watched as she settled close to him. "Well, here's to us." She raised her glass of champagne and clinked it against Max's, who had reached to meet her toast wordlessly. They both took a sip and Max lowered his glass into his lap and stared absentmindedly into it.

"Is something wrong, Max?"

Looking up quickly, Max replied, "Oh, uh, nothing's wrong, 99. I, uh, I guess I'm just a little nervous."

"Nervous, Max? What is there to be nervous about? It's not like we've never been alone before."

"No," he began, "but it is the first time we've been engaged." 99 nodded and sat up straighter, further away from Max. She took a breath before saying:

"Max, why did you keep hesitating when I mentioned marriage? If you didn't mean what you said, I'll understand. It was in the heat of the moment. We thought we were doomed. I won't hold you to it," she finished quietly.

Max was taken aback. He looked at 99, who refused to make eye contact.

"I meant it, 99. I love you. And I want to marry you. It's just that, well, only four months ago you were ready to marry someone else. And now, well, now here we are and I don't know what to think. And what's the chief gonna say? What if we can't be partners anymore? What if we can't get married? We can't give up our careers."

Now it was 99's turn to be taken aback. She finally looked at him and saw him leaning toward her in earnest.

"You have to believe me, 99. I wanna marry you more than anything. But CONTROL needs you. And I can't ask you to give up your career."

"I believe you, Max," she said simply. Max sat back, watching her closely. They sat in silence until 99 began again. "Is that why you never said anything before today, Max?" He shrugged a little and nodded. "Max, you should have come to me. It's my career and I have every right to choose what I do with it. I've loved you all this time thinking you hardly cared for me except for the occasional fling, and now I find out it was because you thought you were protecting me?" Though she hadn't raised her voice, Max was terrified of the words coming out of her mouth.

"99," he started, but she interrupted.

"Max, I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself, of making my own decisions. And it never mattered to me what might happen if we were to get married. Marrying you, loving you always came first." She reached to play with the hair on the back of his neck. "Max, no matter what might happen if we get married, the important thing is that we'll be together."

"But that's just it, 99," Max said. "What if they won't let us be together?"

"If I really want to be with you, love, do you really think I'd let them stop me?"

Max looked at her for a moment before hanging his head a little. For what felt like the thirtieth time that day, Max had been reminded what a strong-willed person 99 was. "Gee, 99, I feel like a dope." She laughed lightly.

"I love you, Max. And I'd like to marry you if you still want to."

He nodded as his eyes met hers. "Please." And then their lips met to seal the deal.

**Fin.**

**Reviews are totally in this season.**


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